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The points raised by professor Delbert C. Miller in his paper about the future direction of industrial sociology are analyzed. The critic agreed with the argument by Miller that industrial sociology needs to be reestablished as a separate discipline--separate from organizational sociology, sociology of occupations and sociology of work. Points in the history of industrial sociology are reviewed to support the grounds of Miller's paper. Along with industrial sociology and economics, sociology has successfully dealt with the central institution of economic life in the United States. Furthermore, industry was the scene of what seemed then to be the most important developments in American society: the rise of the labor movement and the intense conflicts between management and labor.

The contents of this issue represent a selection of papers from the Academy of Marketing Annual Conference held at Aberdeen Business School, The Robert Gordon University in July 2008. The theme of the Conference was "Reflective Marketing in a Material World". This was chosen to embrace both traditional thinking and new ideas as they relate to our subject. Scholars and others were invited to submit papers reflecting on the relevance of marketing to business and society in today's material world. Throughout, with both the theme and the keynote speakers, the emphasis was on marketing academics or practitioners who had something to say and contribute to teaching, research and scholarship in the marketing discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In tackling some of society's most intractable problems, social ventures often engage in strategic alliances to overcome resource constraints and scale their solutions. While considerable research has focused on why strategic alliances are created, less attention has been focused on how they form and why they may (not) persist. Building on an identity-based perspective, this paper develops a theoretical model of strategic alliance development and change by explaining how, and with what results, leaders of social ventures influence the development of organizational identities within their own organizations and strategic alliance partner organizations. The model presented in this paper contributes to the identity literature by developing a cross-level model that explains how individual identities can facilitate the development of organizational identities and by extending the individual-level construct of relational identity to the organizational level by introducing the constructs of ‘organizational’ relational identity and identification. The model contributes to the social entrepreneurship and strategy literatures by suggesting that identity explanations may inform how strategic alliances are formed and why they may (not) persist. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The intent of this research is to propose and analyse a set of policies in the construction industry to enhance social development. First, the paper shows the connections between the development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and social entrepreneurship (SE), the reduction of the leakage, and then the generation of social value (SV) for sustainable regional development. For that, the article analyses briefly the literatures on SE and leakage, and focuses on the relevance of SME and social entrepreneurs as promoters of SV creation and development. Second, the paper proposes a framework and proposes a set of 20 policies aimed to reduce leakage, reinforce SMEs and entrepreneurship and also to promote SE behaviour by the diverse economic agents in the construction industry, in order to increase the generation of SV and sustainable development. Then, the paper analyses the acceptability, feasibility and viability of these proposed polices, which can be useful for academics and practitioners. For that, the study uses the Delphi methodology, applied to an expert-group of 23 professionals (representatives of the private and public sector) belonging to the Colombian construction industry. The results emphasize the relevance of the development of local incumbents and the social focus of firms to increase the generation of SV. Oppositely, policies interfering economic freedom and free trade receive the lowest rates in the three criteria considered. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the innovations in information and communication technologies industry (ICT). It cites on the interconnection within the society including the marginalized or under-served groups which was being supported by the industry in order for the group to improve and will not be left behind. The article also discusses the area of social innovations in local and global contexts being researched to understand the marginalized sector.

The paper written by Professor Delbert Miller about the future direction of industrial sociology is critiqued. Miller addressed the related two related themes which are the need for sociology departments to remodel offerings to compete for students in the educational marketplace and the importance of sharpening the discipline's identity as a specialization directed at business and industry. As a result of the proposed changes in the discipline, students would become viable candidates for personnel, human resources and industrial relations positions. Miller was not suggesting that sociology departments or industrial sociologists have absolutely avoided applications. Rather, neither has sufficiently developed such programs to brake the loss of sociology majors to university units that promise more marketable training.

An emphasis on making markets work for the poor has thrust companies into the role of ‘development agents’ – organisations that consciously seek to deliver outcomes that contribute to international development goals. This paper examines what business as a development agent means in terms of the promise, the conceptualisation and the developmental outcomes of several initiatives engaged in ‘bottom billion capitalism’. It argues that, while these initiatives are hailed as a solution for poverty, the benefits of such engagement must be weighed against other factors, including exclusion, the emphasis on capital assets and the reinterpretation of positive outcomes. The paper presents an alternative model of business as a development agent that better meets the criteria for a genuine development actor. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aims of this introduction are to define the field of Corporate Social Responsibility communication, to emphasize the role of communicating CSR and briefly to describe different perspectives on CSR communication. In the second part, I review the papers in this special issue and stress the importance of different perspectives in CSR communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article mentions the social, economic, and political aspects environmental management and introduces articles in this issue of "International Studies of Management and Organization." The concepts in management science and organizational theory have led to studies on ways to improve "eco-efficiency" and market opportunities for "green" business. Research mentioned includes Marcus 2000, Tom Gladwin (1993), Hoffman and Ventresca 2002, Castree and Braun 1998, Stenberg and Räisänen, Olsen, Raufflet, and Reverdy. The papers in this issue highlight the debate over how to define the environment in different situations and how to develop environmentally sound behavior.

Inspired by the first evaluation processes on how nations and regions have interpreted and specified the smart specialization strategy, this paper applies the lens of evolutionary economic theory to interpret the causes of the lock-in mechanisms in learning processes that seem to prevail in most regions. The paper elaborates the notion of regional learning paradigms and trajectories to interpret evolution in the way innovation occurs in regions. By identifying the sources of path-dependence in regional learning paradigms and trajectories, the paper explains the difficulties faced by regions in ‘jumping’ on a new paradigm/trajectory and initiating an explorative entrepreneurial discovery process. Once the reasons for lock-in are highlighted, the paper advances some suggestions on possible adjustments to the design of a smart specialization strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Côté’s model of ‘identity capital’ is said to comprise a set of strengths and psycho-social skills that are deployed by individuals to both define themselves and represent how others define them. Identity capital is multi-dimensional by nature, both tangible and intangible in character and acquired through the application of resources in identity exchanges. The identity capital framework is built around the youth experience and is, therefore, germane to an exploration of the meaning, motivation and value of youth engagement with socially entrepreneurial endeavours. The young are described as an increasingly important cohort in terms of the creation of socially innovative solutions to the world’s ‘wicked problems’ – and as leaders, not merely followers. In this paper, the model is applied to a single case study of a young New Zealand social entrepreneur using multiple sources of both primary and secondary data (with a longitudinal orientation). Particular emphasis is given to probing how identity capital in this example is accumulated, deployed and exchanged in relation to the lived experience of being a young social entrepreneur, and through a socially entrepreneurial cultural frame of reference. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Conflicts in mining fields that revolve around the type and perceived impact of CSR projects seem to be daunting to solve. Such conflicts emerge from misconceptions among community stakeholders’ that lead to a failed company-community relationship. This inimical situation threatens peace, security, lives, and properties at the community level. To resolve the company-community conflicts, it is important to minimize the misconception among community stakeholders’ by identifying their preferences of CSR projects. However, the challenge of identifying these projects in mining fields is yet to be fully explored and understood. The aim of this paper is to identify community stakeholders’ topmost preferences of CSR projects for an effective company-community relationship and propose a path for community engagement. A sample of 604 respondents comprising community leaders’ and local residents’ from three regions which host Gold Mining Firms with level ‘A’ membership from the Ghana Chamber of Mines were drawn for this study. Using a questionnaire made up of close and open ended questions, a survey was conducted. With SPSS 16.0, the data on the close ended questions were analyzed with ranking and factor analyses while the open ended were drawn into teams to support the former. The results of the ranking analysis show that different group of stakeholders’ had a different preference for CSR projects. The factor analysis revealed that for effective company-community relationship both stakeholders’ preferred a Streamline Social Intervention and Improve Stakeholder Economic related CSR projects. Base on these findings, the study recommends that Mining firms’ should give maximum consideration to projects that seek the welfare of both stakeholders’ and have equal engagement with all stakeholders’. Also, managing expectations before, during and after mining should be a shared responsibility of all the stakeholders’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urban condition, as we know it, might be becoming obsolete: the continuous growth of urban textures points toward a total urbanization of the world. Together with the superimposition of electronic and virtual spaces in the city, this urban expansion furthers a radical alteration of our daily urban experiences, which in turn transforms the parameters of intervention for aesthetic production. This paper aims to outline three components of this aesthetic problem: 1) trans-industrial change, understood as the shift from industrial to postindustrial stages considered asin an ongoing process); 2) the specificities of aesthetic thought, understood as an independent mode of approaching the world differing from mathematical, political, or philosophical thought; and 3) realms of visibility, as informed by the digital and new media revolutions, which are reshaping our modes of communication. To discuss the parameters of this problem, I will draw from a number of examples originating in the United Kingdom, a territory whose cities were at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but which have witnessed a spectacular shift to a global service economy in the late twentieth century: as such, Great Britain offers a metonymical entry into the global context that constitute the framework for this reflection. Within this framework, crucially, the paper identifies the interstice, a crevice between two things, and interstitial space as a privileged locus of aesthetic intervention to be explored within the new terms of a total urbanization. It will evoke the interstice's capacity to divert the flattening impact of homogenizing tendencies and unveil new material and spiritual objects in the urban fabric. Finally, with the work of the Northern Ireland-based artist Conor McFeely, it will offer an artistic articulation addressing head on the problem of imagination in the context of the multilayered and digital/virtual urban becoming. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A service learning project was recently incorporated into a short-term business study abroad program. The main objective was to assess whether there is a place for service learning projects and how they should be integrated into the program. A combination of two surveys were used, one taken before the project and one after. Reflection papers were also analyzed. The findings revealed the effectiveness of service learning in making business students not only aware, but also sensitive to poverty in a developing country. As a result, students may approach business decisions with a greater understanding of their impact on poverty and society. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There is much controversy in the literature over the relationship between the openness of firms' innovation strategies and firm characteristics such as size, R&D intensity and sector. We argue that the controversy arises because, both theoretically and empirically, only a binary, open vs. closed, strategy has been considered. In this paper, we distinguish among three firm strategies: open, semi-open and closed, drawing upon a panel of Spanish firms (2004-2006) using data from Community Innovation Survey (CIS)-type surveys, and two different indicators of openness. Our results show that open innovators are smaller and less R&D intensive than semi-open ones, although larger and more R&D intensive than closed innovators. These results reduce some of the controversies, and show that two conflicting forces, absorptive capacity and a 'need' effect, are at stake in open innovation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do industries seek trade protection against foreign competition in the form of inward foreign direct investment (FDI)? Some studies argue that the influx of FDI may alter the existing structure of competition and defuse firm-level pressure for trade protection. On the other hand, theories that view FDI as a form of strategic rivalry among firms of different national origins suggest that increasing FDI causes greater industry demands for trade protection. This paper empirically tests these competing claims using data on the initiation of antidumping investigations in the US. Its findings show that FDI increases industry demand for trade protection. This result lends support to arguments emphasizing the competitive challenge FDI poses to domestic firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article reports on the concept of social marketing and the idea of using social marketing for social change and social good. Topics discussed including social change, social policies, integrated marketing, and theory of social marketing in various governmental or non-governmental industries. Role of stakeholders, business enterprises, and health programmes in the development of social marketing is also discussed. However, there is also criticism of social marketing for too much stretched defined marketing.

Public business incubators are services placed at the disposal of original, generally newly-created projects, to which physical accompaniment, supervision and location are offered at prices below market value. They have as their aim to help set in motion and consolidate these firms during the stages in which they are weaker. The ultimate goal consists in favouring the generation of innovative firms, inducers of high-quality jobs, which can diversify the local business fabric, thus becoming a key tool in local development. The present paper provides a methodology to study the economic – but above all social – impact of business incubators, based on the examination of 40 from the 42 incubators existing in the Valencian Community (a Spanish autonomous region with five million inhabitants). Data analysis allows us to state that, although business incubators are not economically profitable since they need financial aids and public investment to start operating, they do have social profitability, insofar as the activity developed by entrepreneurs permits to provide public administrations – via taxes – with returns exceeding what was invested in these incubators. It has been determined that 2.8 euros (which can be applied to a variety of social areas) are collected via taxes for each euro spent to start them up. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper sets out to develop a systems perspective on comparative human resource management. It draws primarily on organizational theory literature to develop a framework useful for (1) describing and explaining variations in and (2) identifying broad patterns of comparative HRMSs. The organizational congruence literature is seen as a particularly fruitful basis for this exercise. The paper also addresses the theory of convergence and it is argued that the dynamics of free international markets are only just beginning to emerge and are likely to produce broadly converging consequences for HRM systems world-wide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The arguments presented by Professor Delbert C. Miller in his paper about the future direction of industrial sociology are examined. The paper manifests the espousal of applied interests. Miller has shown his desire to bring industrial sociology back to the glories of its past by raising the fundamental issues of what sociology is and is to become, which are issues at the heart of the contrast between the pure and the applied orientations. In one sense, it is a question of what kind of knowledge and theory is wanted. Applied interests, no matter how much they rely on deductive theory, are always single-case interests, the case that is here and now. Despite certain disclaimers, Miller sees industrial sociology as oriented toward the interests and problems of those who run industrial organizations and those whose job it is to keep the environment stable for such organizations.

This paper reports on a case study of the impact of professional doctorate programmes on graduates and their work organisations. Telephone interviews were carried out with graduates and nominated peer and senior colleagues to elucidate the types of change apparent and the impact of those changes. We found that all interviewees reported development of the graduates’ conceptual frameworks, increased personal and professional confidence, and enhanced engagement within and beyond their organisations. New capabilities and forms of interaction reported by colleagues appeared to facilitate the building of improved networks. Simple causal links were difficult to establish although the professional doctors themselves gave accounts of disruption, subversion and challenge that they attributed to their new knowledge and understandings. Such data draw attention to the complexity and messiness of the professional learning process, calling into question the simple input–output model of impact currently used. We suggest that further research is necessary to develop greater understanding of the organisational impact of the professional doctorate, and the ways in which that can be measured. This is especially important where there is increasing demand for a highly qualified workforce at the same time as decreasing professional development budgets. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Based on a two-sided ethnographic study in Accra, this paper analyses Chinese–Ghanaian employment relations from the perspectives of psychological contract, cross-cultural equity expectations and foreignness. Reaching beyond racially framed allegations of each other that are informed partly by politicized media discourses, structural analysis shows that mutually contradictory, culturally grounded expectations regarding their employment relationship are central to the understanding of conflict between Chinese employers and Ghanaian employees. Central to the frictions of mutual equity expectations is the feeling of existential vulnerability that – although particular for each group – is shared by both Chinese migrant employers taking high financial risks in an unfamiliar and potentially hostile environment and their local employees recruited almost exclusively from economically marginalized groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social entrepreneurship (SE) is an increasingly popular practice in which business solutions are applied to social problems. While empirical study of the various facets of SE is on the rise, the motivation of social entrepreneurs – a key antecedent of SE – has received little attention. In contrast, substantial theoretical and empirical work exists on the motivation of commercial entrepreneurs as well as the motivation for public–social sector work. Seeking to fill a gap in the SE literature, this paper presents qualitative findings from in-person, in-depth interviews with self-identified nascent social entrepreneurs that participated in an SE training program in the USA. The findings provide an empirical foundation for further theory development and research on SE motivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the influence of the three components of intellectual capital (human, social and organizational) and intensity in collaboration with clients on service innovativeness in knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS). It also includes a discussion on the impact of both service innovativeness and intensity in collaboration with clients on innovation success. An empirical study is conducted on a sample of companies belonging to two technology-based KIBS industries: software and R&D services. The results suggest that the positive effect of human capital on service innovativeness is moderated by intensity in collaboration with clients, being human capital enhanced by organizational and social capital. The effect of social capital on service innovativeness is partially mediated by human capital and also moderated by intensity in collaboration with clients. Finally, service innovativeness positively affects innovation success, while intensity in collaboration with clients has a higher effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As has been shown in this paper, there are a wide variety of consequences of technological and social change on the personnel structure and personnel qualification in industry. These consequences are not bound to be negative for both labour and management. In order to master them, however, it will be necessary for both sides to look at the problems in their entirety and react flexibly. We hope this article will help to achieve this aim. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how personal and situational factors impact consumer expectations of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Consumer expectations are known to motivate marketers to incorporate social considerations into their marketing practices and to communicate about those actions. A study was conducted in order to examine the effect of values and issue involvement on consumer CSR expectations, categorised as economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic. The study's findings demonstrated that consumers generally have high expectations of CSR, especially in the legal and ethical-philanthropic domains. Expectations for the ethical-philanthropic dimension of CSR are higher amongst consumers holding high self-transcendent values and practicing high involvement. The main implications of the study are the potential for positioning companies as socially responsible and incorporating CSR in strategic marketing and communications decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has emerged as a dominant theme guiding business practice. Governments have embraced this philosophy and legislated to encourage socially responsible business practice in its many forms. While governments' endorsement of CSR practice is expressed in policy, the successful integration into its own practice is not evidenced in the literature. Using a case research method, this paper analyses the nature of Australian government advertising processes, developing a modified framework founded on Wood's (1991) Corporate Social Performance model and Maignan and Ferrell's (2004) CSR principles. This research is important because it provides an application model for CSR practice and provides government with a decision-making vehicle for CSR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social responsibility of business has become a major issue in recent years and the reporting of such activity is becoming more prevalent. Companies are attuning to the benefits of being seen as socially responsibly and many industries are jumping on the bandwagon of reporting CSR and using different media to communicate their activities in this arena to their stakeholders. This paper considers the content of one type of such communications, the annual report, and looks at how organisations are taking a focused stakeholder view of CSR rather than a wider view as would be expected from the ambiguity of definitions of the concept. Differences in reporting practices were found by an analysis of the annual and CSR reports of 28 FTSE4Good firms focusing on a variety of industries. Findings show that there is a significant difference between how organisations in different industries report on CSR consistent with a stakeholder view of CSR, and that this reporting follows for the most part the expectations of the CSR communications literature. It is suggested that firms report on CSR in line with what their key stakeholders expect, thus giving evidence for CSR reporting as another tool in the marketing communicators toolbox. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we study the impacts of regional integration on the structure of industries in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) transition economies. Our empirical analysis is based on the economic geography framework, which is able to predict not only the industry location after integration, but also to capture other general equilibrium effects, such as transition to market economy, which turn out to be highly significant in the CEE. Our empirical results complement previous findings that industry location is strongly related to economic integration. We also find that CEE integration of the Council on Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) has distorted the industry location pattern predicted by the underlying economic geography theory. These distortions are higher in those regions that were more integrated in the CMEA. Our ex-ante simulation results suggest a convergence in regional specialisation after CEE integration with the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to find out how local translations of a generic management system reduce organizational uncertainties, produce technical and organizational knowledge, and introduce cooperative relations, cross-functional learning, and problem identification and solving. The study uses the organizational dynamics associated with the implementation of an environmental management system (EMS), according to ISO 14001, in a chemical plant to answer those questions. Based on an ethnographic study, this paper unravels the way in which ISO 14001 requirements are interpreted by environmental managers and production teams and are, then, translated to fit their organizational context (i.e., the specific industrial managerial cultures and organizational issues). The author concludes that the production and circulation of artifacts embodying extensive knowledge about the production activity and its impacts on the environment counterbalance the dependency of a company's environment departments on other departments and increase the environment department's ability to mobilize teams around the environmental stakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reports findings of a study into the personal contact networks of Greek entrepreneurs, and compares these to results already published for other countries (Canada, Japan, Italy, Northern Ireland, Sweden, the UK, and the USA). Findings show that generic behaviour across borders cannot be assumed, although similarities exist in the under-representation of women as network members, the average age of network contacts, duration of relationships, and average monthly meetings. A clear example has also been provided of a culture where business networks are very deeply embedded in social structures, and where little or no evidence of an instrumentalist neo-classical model can be found. From a theoretical perspective, adaptation of Hofstede's four-dimensional model provides a generally robust interpretive framework for the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper introduces the essays on consumption, shopping tourism and informal trade in socialism, by presenting the framework of the research project in which they were produced. As opposed to tourists' shopping, shopping tourism is defined as travel abroad with the explicit aim to buy goods, unavailable, difficult to find, or inordinately costly in one's home country, for personal use or reselling to compatriots. Shopping tourism became a widespread practice in the East-European socialist economies of shortage as soon as travel restrictions, at first among socialist countries and, later, to the West, had been relaxed. Following a discussion of official and popular attitudes to consumption during socialism, the author points out that shopping tourism was not a form of popular resistance to the political system but rather a set of ingenious practices of adaptation to the everyday exigencies it created. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper formulate the point of departure for Marxist research of the work organizations and industrial relations in capitalism. The substance is the labor process, but not in its abstract form, independent of the particular form it assumes under given social conditions. This means that the labor process is mediated by two different types of conditions: first, the natural and functional forms and second, the socioeconomic determinations which give a historically and socially specific content to the natural and functional forms. The problem is: how to conceptualize the qualitatively new features and tendencies of these conditions? This problem is discussed at two levels of abstraction: first, generally within the critique of political economy and then in connection with the category of subordination of labor to capital. The last section is devoted to formulating a research task at a more concrete level. The problem of conceptualization of the socialization can be thus divided analytically into three parts: the study and elaboration of the socioeconomic determinations of the labor process and its regulation system, the conceptualization of the development of the functional forms of the labor process and its regulation, and the conceptualization of the interaction and internal relations of the laws and tendencies of the socioeconomic determinations and the developmental tendencies of the functional forms.

In 1947, the Arabian American Oil Company (ARAMCO) began a malaria control program in Saudi Arabia. Historians of development focus on state-led schemes, ignoring corporate policy. The story of ARAMCO's malaria control efforts indicates that corporate objectives significantly influenced American–Saudi relations in the immediate post-World War II era. Regardless of corporate research that interpreted malaria as a symptom of underdevelopment, the company persisted with the most common control measures at the time, assaults on the mosquito. In contrast, Saudi Arabia and the World Health Organization connected the disease to economic stagnation and its control to development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the rational complexity in business including two different technological sectors in analysis of the Gothenburg urban region. It elaborates two ideal meta-theoretical and contrasting images of sustainable, localized business activity. It notes that the generic approaches is first related to the academic discourse and empirically illustrated where its lesson are then refined into proposed bridging rationale that emphasizes the need for a dialogue originating in very tension between territorial and functional perspective.

Explores the economic and cultural geographies of one localized agglomeration, as a means of determining how territorially defined networks of firms offer the basis for enhanced competitiveness. Factors which attribute to the success of businesses; Categories in which business firms are placed.

This article discusses social innovations in organizations, highlighting ways for cooperation between people who work and interact in organizations for common objectives. Innovation is concerned with change. Whereas technological innovation is concerned with application of new technology, social innovation deals with application of new social patterns of human interaction. Innovations are concerned with the future. A number of reasons can be listed that all point toward the need for social innovations. They can broadly be grouped in two categories, stemming from managerial and social requirements. The new environment imposes new requirements on management. The organization is much more unpredictable in its behavior. It must respond quickly to changes; speed will be of great importance. Changes in materials, technologies, and need patterns require flexibility. Such a situation can be a threat, but offers opportunities for those who can utilize the creative potential of the organization. The capacity of an organization to adapt to a dynamic environment depends on its employees. Here is a great challenge to management. In order to meet the social requirements of the future, there is a real need for new ways of thinking. Social innovations may in the future be even more important than technological innovations. The ability to motivate others will be a criterion of managerial success.

Recently, increasing attention has been paid to building successful partnerships in information systems (IS) outsourcing. This study establishes partnership quality as a key predictor of outsourcing success. The authors propose a theoretical framework for outsourcing partnership based on a social, rather than an economic, perspective. They identify the partnership-related variables from the relevant literature and clarify the concept of partnership quality by distinguishing between its components and its determinants. They then examine the impact of partnership quality on outsourcing success. Hypotheses on partnership quality were tested for 74 outsourcing relationships between 36 service receivers and 54 service providers. Results indicate that partnership quality may serve as a key predictor of outsourcing success. Partnership quality was found to be positively influenced by factors such as participation, communication, information sharing, and top management support, and negatively affected by age of relationship and mutual dependency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An effective scaling strategy can enable social entrepreneurs to significantly increase their organizations' impact. Bloom and Chatterji's SCALERS framework identifies seven capabilities social ventures can develop to effectively scale social impact: staffing, communicating, alliance-building, lobbying, earnings generation, replicating, and stimulating market forces. Empirical testing of SCALERS offers the potential to validate this framework, as well as to uncover additional capabilities necessary for scaling. In an examination of qualitative data from a case study of rapid social venture growth, our study tests the SCALERS framework. We find two additional capabilities important to effective scaling: internal systems (the formal processes and procedures used to run the organization, including information systems and planning systems) and client selection (choosing which clients to serve and, conversely, which not to serve). We also find that the extent to which communication constitutes a service of the venture is a contingency influencing the importance of communicating capabilities, and that clients' ability to pay is a contingency impacting the importance of earnings generation capabilities. Keywords: social entrepreneurship; social impact; stakeholder theory Une stratégie de mise à l'échelle efficace peut permettre aux entrepreneurs sociaux d'accroître considérablement l'impact de leurs organisations. Le cadre SCALERS de Bloom et Chatterji identifie sept capacités que les entreprises sociales peuvent développer pour réduire efficacement l'impact social: dotation en personnel, communication, création d'alliances, lobbying, génération de revenus, réplication et stimulation des forces du marché. Les tests empiriques de SCALERS offrent la possibilité de valider ce cadre et de découvrir des fonctionnalités supplémentaires nécessaires à la mise à l'échelle. Dans un examen de données qualitatives issues d'une étude de cas sur la croissance rapide de l'activité sociale, notre étude teste le cadre SCALERS. Nous trouvons deux fonctionnalités supplémentaires importantes pour une mise à l'échelle efficace: les systèmes internes (les processus et procédures formels utilisés pour gérer l'organisation, y compris les systèmes d'information et les systèmes de planification) et la sélection des clients (choisir les clients à servir et inversement). Nous constatons également que la mesure dans laquelle la communication constitue un service de l'entreprise conditionne l'importance des capacités de communication et que la capacité de paiement des clients est un facteur de risque qui pèse sur l'importance des capacités de génération de bénéfices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many government of developing countries show their commitment of reducing extreme poverty. A dominant thought considers that economic growth should be based on capital accumulation, productivity improvement, and access to international markets. This article tracts the system of assumptions that developing countries should meet to ensure that transfer models from developed countries could be efficient. We suggest a rebuilding of the transfer model by identifying some "structuring" conditions of developing countries, in particular by empowering universities to take a central role in the regional development process. From a poverty reduction perspective, the focus should be on the sustainability of local socio-technical systems, even if the options chosen are less efficient in the short term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to consider the efficacy of the societal marketing concept using the POSIT framework and a classification of corporate responsibility. The exploration of both positive and negative aspects of the societal marketing concept allows an overall discussion of the stakeholder interests concerned and the alternatives exposed. This produces some comparisons and contrasts for marketing managers to reflect upon when contemplating the adoption of the societal marketing concept, suggesting it may not always be in the best interests of all stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global value chain (GVC) perspective assumes that business firms’ occupation of high value-added nodes in the global production network can promote their countries’ socio-economic development. However, I argue that society-wide benefits that may follow from firms’ profit-maximizing activities are often ephemeral. Over time the middle class can shrink, and economic inequality can increase even when firms continue to move up to higher value-added niches and garner huge profit. I illustrate this disjunction between business activities and societal development with Apple’s strategies of tax avoidance and reduction from the Obama to the Trump administration. I then draw on the theoretical framework that Giovanni Arrighi sets out in The Long Twentieth Century and ideas from The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus to analyze the Apple case. As my analysis makes clear, the flawed assumption of the GVC perspective reveals its practitioners’ failure to recognize that within global capitalism, permanent and sustained societal affluence is unlikely, and what exists instead is a constant alternation between prosperity and disparity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on fieldwork in three Andean regions of Peru, this article analyses the capacity of corporate social responsibility (CSR) to reduce mining-related violence in rural communities in developing countries. Within Peru, to some extent CSR has stabilised short-term relationships between mining corporations and nearby communities, although tensions remain high in others. While effects are varied and locally-contingent, the findings support a theoretical understanding of CSR as deeply embedded in legitimising the violence of capitalism, including the slow violence from degrading local environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the challenges that arise while developing an intelligence culture for the public and the relevance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to intelligence studies. Topics include the responsibilities of modern businesses to society, the issue of lack of trust for intelligence agencies, and the totalitarian regimes of countries which have used their intelligence services to repress people.

As the term ‘social licence to operate’ gains more traction in New Zealand, a plethora of meanings and understandings have been attributed to it. Many of these meanings and understandings, however, only tell a partial story that is often only economically beneficial to a particular industry or industry actor. This article surveys academic, industry, government and media writing about social licence across industries in New Zealand over the past 5 years, distilling out key messages, meanings and understandings that are being created and delivered. The article further compares these meanings and understandings to the original intent of the term as well as the meanings being generated from the extensive research on social licence being carried out in Australia and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Sustainability research has increasingly progressed to incorporate economic, environmental and social aspects of business. While firms are inherently competing with each other in logistics distribution, this study investigates whether coopetition strategy (i.e. cooperate and compete) can lead to achieving the sustainability. Using a cross-sectional sample of newspaper supply chain partners including transporters and newsagents in Thailand, the results of structural equation modelling path analysis suggest that managers strongly believe in coopetitive approach to achieve sustainable logistics distribution resulting in significant economic, social and environmental improvement. The findings help managers to understand that firms that perceive to collaborate with competitors in a horizontal relationship can achieve sustainable logistic distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through a study of the co-operatively organised dairy company Arla the article argues that the influence of co-operative societies in Denmark goes far beyond the economic sphere. Since the founding of the co-operative movement in the late nineteenth century it has been viewed as a unique Danish way into modernity that is more democratic than the traditional process of industrialisation seen in other European countries. Thus the narrative of the co-operatives has become part of Danish memory and identity. In the post-war years, however, and especially in the last two decades, the process of globalisation in the food industry has eroded the foundation of this narrative from within, such that it has begun to turn against the co-operative societies. Accused of being monopolistic, multinational and undemocratic, the companies today find themselves trapped in their own history and storytelling. The article draws on a cultural-historical framework, narrative theory and Pierre Nora's notion of memory. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]